Recipes galore

I managed to find some inspiration and cooked up a few things this week. Of course the major accomplishment is that I finished the green beans!

As I said last week I was looking for a new way to make green beans and since I got tomatoes this week I did some googling for recipes. I came up with this, and though it wasn't my favorite, it made for a decent dinner and used up the green beans. Of course I only made as much I wanted to actually eat and guessed at the amounts.

Sauteed Green Beans with Tomatoes and Basil
    •    1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans, trimmed
    •    2 tablespoons unsalted butter
    •    1 tablespoon olive oil
    •    3 large shallots, thinly sliced (left these out)
    •    2 garlic cloves, minced
    •    1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes (I used fresh)
    •    1/4 cup dry white wine
    •    2 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil
    •    Salt and freshly ground black pepper
    •    Parmesan Crisps (I didn't make these, it's basically cooking a clump of parmesan cheese, but I do wish I had added parmesan cheese at the end.)

Cook the green beans in a large pot of boiling water until just crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Drain and rinse in cold water. Drain well; set aside.
Melt the butter and oil in a heavy, large skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic and saute until tender, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook until heated through, about 3 minutes. Add the beans and cook until the juices evaporate and the beans are almost tender, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Stir in the wine and basil. Simmer 2 minutes longer. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Transfer to a serving bowl, and serve.

Then I took the advice of the commenters on my last post about the plums. I found this recipe for a peach and plum jam/spread that was surprisingly easy, and it tastes pretty good too!

Microwave Peach Plum Butter Recipe
    •    1 cup finely chopped, peeled peaches
    •    1 cup pitted, chopped plums
    •    1 tablespoon water
    •    1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    •    1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (I used nutmeg because I didn't
    •    1/2 cup granular no-calorie sucralose sweetener (such as Splenda®)

        Combine peaches, plums, and water in a microwave-safe glass or ceramic bowl. Heat in the microwave on high in 3 minute intervals, stirring between heating, until mixture is very thick, about 15 minutes. Stir in the cinnamon, ginger, and sweetener. Pour fruit butter into a jar. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Then last night I halved the three plums I had left and cooked them on my grill pan and added them to a salad. (I have to add that my grill pan is one of the best purchases I've made for my kitchen. This week alone I've grilled corn, plums and cooked pancakes on the griddle side.)

A few weeks ago, I found this recipe for cornbread that calls for fresh corn and basil, but I was out of corn and my basil was dead (some rain and me actually watering the plant have brought it back to life, though I can't say the same for my thyme). Anyway, I decided to make it last night to have with my salad. It is good cornbread, but the basil that gives it an interesting flavor.


Fresh Corn and Basil Cornbread

    •    1 1/2 cups buttermilk (One of the greatest tricks I learned from Pioneer Woman is that you can make buttermilk by adding a tablespoon of white vinegar to a cup of lowfat milk, adjust based on how much you need.)
    •    3 large eggs
    •    1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
    •    2 cups yellow cornmeal
    •    1 cup all purpose flour
    •    1/2 cup sugar
    •    4 teaspoons baking powder
    •    1 teaspoon salt
    •    1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, diced (I only had salted butter and had already mixed in the salt. I didn't think it came out too salty though.)
    •    1 1/2 cups fresh cornkernels (from 3 ears)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Butter 9x9x2-inch metal baking pan. Whisk buttermilk, eggs, and basil in large bowl. Blend cornmeal and next 4 ingredients in food processor for 5 seconds. Add 1/2 cup butter; blend until coarse meal forms. Add corn kernels. Using 8 on/off turns, blend until kernels are coarsely chopped. Stir dry ingredients into buttermilk mixture; transfer to pan.
Bake cornbread until golden on top and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool 20 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

And then because apparently cooking has become my latest hobby (and I worked an earlier shift), I decided to make blueberry muffins. Not that I need anymore muffins, but this is the last batch of blueberries until I get frozen ones in November and I had been wanting to try this recipe (plus this is probably the only time I'll have plain yogurt). Pioneer Woman calls these the Awesome-est Blueberry Muffins, and I have to agree. They are by far the best muffins I've made.

The Awesome-est Blueberry Muffins

• 3 cups minus 2 tablespoons flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• Heavy pinch of salt

• Dash of Nutmeg

• 1 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

• 1 egg

• 1 generous cup plain, unflavored yogurt (throw in extra if you want)
• 
2 cups fresh blueberries

• Vanilla Extract

• Softened Butter, for muffin tins

• Turbinado sugar (optional)

 Preheat oven to 385 degrees.

In a large bowl sift flour, baking soda, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In another large bowl whisk together sugar, oil, capful of vanilla, egg, and yogurt. Add the dry ingredients and stir to a count of 10.
Add blueberries, reserving 1/2 cup, to mixture and stir 3 times.
Add mixture to well-buttered muffin pans. Sprinkle remaining berries on top and press down lightly. Sprinkle turbinado sugar over top. (Brown sugar can be used instead.)
Bake 20 to 25 minutes and allow to cool completely.

There's also a recipe for a yogurt blueberry sauce, but I didn't think it was necessary.

I've still got a few things left, but I think I'm going to have to pull out a chicken soon!

What do I do with these?

So based on the emailed list of what I was getting this week, I wasn't sure my pickup was worth a post.

But then I got these:

Nectarines

And these:

Plums (apparently yellow ones)

Granted I got some good tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, blueberries and lettuce. But I was thrown by the nectarines and plums. I don't think I've ever had either of these fruits.

But I have tried both now. I do like the nectarines, maybe better than peaches as far as eating them plain, and the plums aren't horrible but I'm not sure I can just eat them all plain. So I am open to suggestions and recipes.

Otherwise this weekend I found a good balance between some downtime and recovery from my cold and some good time with friends. I didn't do much cooking, but I'm hoping to find some motivation this week.

The never ending green beans

A few weeks ago I discovered that I did like fresh green beans and found some good ways to prepare them. Then I got another pound of green beans at my next pick-up, and I'm starting to think they are multiplying in my fridge. I swear I've been eating them, but there's always more that need to be eaten.

When I went out to eat last weekend, the waitress said they didn't have green beans as the menu said but had asparagus instead. I was ready to make a trade to get some asparagus for my green beans. Something tells me they would not have gone for it.

Anyway, I was starting to feel like I had no other way to cook them until I did some searching on allrecipes. I found this recipe for pasta with green beans, new potatoes, pesto and yogurt, which shockingly I had all of the ingredients. (I bought the yogurt for peach smoothies.) While I would have left out the potatoes, this was actually a good way to eat my green beans, in fact I considered them the key ingredient, although I'll eat just about anything with some pesto on it.

I woke up with a cold Wednesday morning (still not sure why since it's July!), and I decided to eat more green beans for dinner last night since I couldn't taste anything anyway. I was talking with someone about preparing the green beans the same way I cooked asparagus (i.e. with olive salt in the toaster oven). I also cooked some thinly sliced new potatoes, and it actually made for a decent meal considering I wasn't that hungry to begin with.

But even after all of that, I still have green beans left, but it doesn't look like I will be getting more with my share this week, which is a relief!

My friend the freezer

I made dinner before writing this, and I had three burners on my stove going but managed to burn myself on my toaster oven. And now I'm writing about freezing things, but the thing my freezer is missing is an ice maker, which would have been useful tonight. Anyway, on to the topic for today's post.

When I first moved into my apartment in Georgia after graduating from college, everyone told me to use my freezer. But I can't say that I ever really did. Yes, I had stuff I would buy frozen (Bagel Bites were a staple in my life at that time), but I rarely froze things I made. But that's probably because I wasn't cooking.

Now, my freezer is full. Currently, I have two types of muffins, pizza dough, tomato sauce (homemade, by the way), my whole chicken (which reminds me I need to cook it before I pick up another one), chicken broth, cinnamon rolls and cakeballs. I also have some hamburger meat, bread and ice cream in there.

I haven't had a reason to freeze the produce I'm getting, and I'm still a little worried about how that would change the taste. I'm sure freezing works, but I've just been a little skeptical.

But I know that I can make a dozen blueberry or zucchini or peach muffins and freeze what I'm not going to eat right away. And the chicken broth has meant I have a staple for a lot of recipes, especially for my green beans lately. It's also nice to know I'm not going to find the broth has gone bad in my cabinet.

I made a simple tomato sauce (can of tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and oregano), used it on a pizza and then divided the rest into single servings so I can pull them out for pizza or pasta. And I won't find containers with white stuff growing in them in my fridge. Now if only I could figure out a way to avoid the sour milk that comes all too quickly.

Also, before I started the co-op I discovered the convenience of frozen vegetables (yes, I realize this contradicts my earlier statement but someone else does the freezing). I found it was much easier to pull out a handful of corn, lima beans or okra and cook how much I want, rather than opening a can and having leftovers.

All of this to say, my freezer has definitely been a friend lately, and I'll say I'm considering it key to cooking for one.

A drop of golden sun...

One of the advantages of moving here last summer was getting to be within two hours of my best friend from high school. This is the closest we've lived since I graduated from high school, and it's so great to be able to visit each other for a weekend or even meet halfway to catch up in person.

The Sound of Music gave her an excuse to visit this weekend. The musical is part of series performed here in the summers. I'm not sure why or how, but it was an excellent production with very talented actors who could sing!

In addition to the play, we got to go peach picking with some friends. I had found a recipe that used the last of my blueberries and peaches, and since I hadn't gotten peaches in my share last week, I was willing to pick a couple of pounds to try some recipes. I also found some tips on pitting a peach that I have found to be successful. 

It turns out the lack of rain has meant smaller peaches, and they were still a bit hard but they are starting to ripen and taste pretty good. And my peach and blueberry muffins turned out pretty well.

(And yes, I do a lot of fruit picking here. I missed cherries but will soon have apples to pick. Come visit and with the exeception of winter, there will be fruit to pick.)

Since I've started getting my shares, I haven't been eating out as much. But having a visitor gave me a good excuse to eat out. And I found that the co-op has changed my eating out habits as well. We went to a sandwich place and I got the same sandwich I got last fall, but this time I didn't pick off the cucumbers. (The red onions and sprouts did have to go though.) And then we went to a restaurant for dinner that is known for making all of their dishes with local ingredients. Normally, I would have ordered a salad or chicken, both with ingredients that pass my pickiness test. But this time I ordered one of the day's specials (this never happens). It was veggie pasta with spinach and zucchini, and it was amazing. It also made me miss my zucchini and spinach.

Anyway it was great to get to hang out with such a good friend and enjoy what turned out to be a great weather weekend!

What a difference a year makes

1. I did not spend my Fourth of July weekend waiting on movers that never show or unpacking boxes. Instead I got to have friends over to celebrate with.

2. I was off work on July 5, no question, sorry newspaper friends.

3. My lease renewed automatically July 1, and I didn't have a meltdown. In Georgia, I seriously panicked every time my lease came up for renewal because I was just never sure I could commit to another year there. But committing to another year here barely registered with me, even though a year ago I wasn't sure if this would be a temporary stop for me or something more permanent.

4. I renewed my car tags online in about five minutes. Definitely beats the hours I spent at the DMV and on the phone getting my new license plate this time last year just to park on my street.

5. Just after I moved here last year I went to a church picnic. After standing there awkwardly for what seemed like forever (but was probably only a minute or two) hoping someone would talk to me, I turned around and left. I started doubting this big church I was going to and missed the small Georgia church where I knew everyone. A couple of weeks ago I went to a very similar picnic (same church), but this time I went with a friend and actually knew several people there. I left just thinking what a difference a year makes.

Pick-up #6

I did pick up a share this week, I just haven't had a chance to get a post up. I got some of the usual suspects: Bibb lettuce, green beans and cucumbers. But I got a few new things too.

Blackberries, these are amazing. I have eaten all of them, just plain. I had recipes to try, but these were so sweet and good, I just ate them all.

Blueberries. These are good blueberries, but I've learned I don't really like just plain blueberries. So I've made blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes and even a blueberry sauce to put on some ice cream. And the blueberries were amazing for all of those things, apparently I just need my blueberries warm. 

New potatoes. I've made some of these stuffed potatoes and then these roasted potatoes.

Corn. I picked up a few extra ears and served corn on the cob when I had people over on the Fourth. I'm not sure if I had Kroger corn or some from the co-op, but either way it was really good.


I picked up my share early, so I feel like I'm going through it quickly, but I still have a lot of green beans left. And I pretty much live on cucumber and tomato sandwiches for lunch.